Being Productive

I guess it was hard to think about all the pills because during this time Bob was quite productive. He was working on getting his black belt and writing a script with his karate friend and writing partner.

They spent a lot of time together and Bob used his friends hyper personality as an excuse for taking a lot of Valium, besides saying his back felt better with it. I wasn't worried because I did believe it would be ok as I mentioned. Bob needed something to do after his flying was abruptly ended.

Bob had been teaching aerobatic flying until one of his students crashed the plane into high tension wires. It was a miracle that they did not burn to death. His dream of flying and teaching had come to a halt, so did the days of being pill free.
When he flew he never even took an aspirin. Now that was all over. The incident was quite a blow to him. It wasn't his fault, but of course he had to be investigated to make sure he wasn't drinking or using drugs. I felt sorry for him. It seemed that in his life, whatever could go wrong did. This was one example of something he loved going sour on him.

The student pilot flew the plane ran right into the high tension wires. When they hit the wires the plane started to turn upside down, Bob had also taught EMT emergency maneuver training and as miraculous as it was, he managed to turn the plane right side up, before landing on the back of a pickup truck.
He flew out of a small airport in Santa Paula, California which had no control tower.
It is very popular with celebrities and pilots who just love the older planes.

When they hit the wires of course they snapped and tore off one of the wings. also the fuel tank was leaking fuel. It happened so fast Bob said. The pilot in control was sitting in front of the plain and Bob as the instructor was sitting behind him in a Super Decathlon. The student pilot froze on the controls as was not even thinking when it happened.

Bob kept telling him to relax and let go of the stick, let go of the stick. Finally seconds before they hit the student did let go and Bob was able to regain control of the stick. If he hadn't they would have both died. Bob had to kick the door open from the back seat, his student was just frozen with fear.

The man who owned the truck was not a very happy man. Instead of trying to help Bob and his student out of the plane he was screaming at them and threatening them. Meanwhile sparks are flying all around the fuel that was leaking. Bob got his student to safety and then ran back to get the parachutes out of the plane.

That's the kind of man he was, at times just fearless. He wasn't afraid of dying, ever. In fact there were times when I thought to myself he put himself in places and courted it. He was fearless because he at times was sick and tired of being an alcholic. Tired of having to fight the demon who was always lying in wait to creep up on him when he least expected it.

Bob was taken to the hospital for observation, he came out with a slight concussion.
He called me from the hospital, his first words were, "Don't Worry". Of course that set my heart pounding. Bob had never called me like that, I knew something had happened. I was grateful that all he suffered was a slight concussion. I had always had a fear of him flying those little planes upside down and doing dives and stuff like that. We did not tell his father what had happened. The story made the front page of the papers in Santa Paula, but their local news never hit the LA Times. We did tell his daughter and his brother I think, but Bob didn't want to worry his Dad.

I never flew in his decathlon with him, because I was terrified that once he got me in it he would just do one little loop or something. We had our son to think about, and I wasn't comfortable having two of us up there in one plane.
What would happen to Matt if we weren't around to be there for him?

The examination at the hospital proved that Bob was absolutely clean and sober, but he still had to pay $1,000 to the man who owned the company to help with his insurance to cover the plane, which was totaled and the damage to the truck.

After that incident, I begged Bob to not teach flying anymore he told me he would think about it, but he didn't want to appear like he was afraid to fly after that. It was a lesson well learned. He was a great pilot, but as a teacher, you never knew what the skills of the other pilot were. He had placed his life in a stranger's hands and I almost lost him that day. I was so grateful he had dodged another bullet.

So Bob thought about it and didn't have too long to make a decision. There was some sort of divine intervention lurking on his horizon. He took a photographer up to do some aerial photography and a few days later he got a call from his boss. Someone in the area they were photographing called the FAA. They took down the number of the plane Bob was piloting and reported that someone that morning had been flying too low above their house. They said it was the call letters on Bob's plane. Only problem with that was that Bob did not go up until after 1pm that afternoon. The plane that was flying in the morning was not Bob.

In order to appease the homeowner, the FAA launched a full investigation and Bob had to hire an attorney. This court is not like other courts. It is run by the Federal Aviation Association. It was a hung court. From the moment they called him he never had a chance to prove his innocence. They had a pilot and any pilot would do to make this all go away.

Bob had all the phone records to prove that he was not even called to go in that morning until after 9, around the time the first plane was spotted flying to low.
The log that records what time a plane leaves the hanger proved he was not the pilot of the incident. It did not matter. They suspended his license for 6 months.

It was an outrage. The FAA was out for a body, any body to appease the neighborhood in which the incident took place. I never would have believed it was so corrupt unless we had lived through the experience. Bob was told to mail his pilots license into to the FAA. He never did. He told them he lost it. They knew he did not lose it, they also knew he was not the pilot flying the plane at fault. He was not fined for not turning in his license and they never replaced it as they said they would after the six months were up. Bob was right, he would have never gotten back his license had he mailed it in.

It was a sad time for him. He lost something that meant a lot to him, his ability to fly, to feel free, to teach others. So he started taking Karate with our son.

Years before Bob had studied another system. He really needed something to do everyday to feel productive. Our son was really happy to have his dad to look up to.
It gave them something that really bonded them. The only problem was that it was not good for Bob's body, he was getting hurt.
They went full out in their workouts and his body wasn't in the best shape when he started. He went in with a bad back and before he got his black belt five years later, he would also have two bad knees.